Devellano draws ire of CBC's Morrison for 'leave the game alone' theory

The CBC's Scotty Morrison was less than impressed with Red Wings VP Jimmy Devellano's suggestion that "the game" should be left alone for a few years:

November 30, CBC Sports: "Most people feel that the game is going in the right direction," said Detroit Red Wings governor Jimmy Devellano. "I don't want to use the word satisfied, but there's a good feeling about the game, that the game is being played a little better than prior to the lockout."

In other words, Chicken Little take a deep breath. Scoring may be down, but the sky might not be falling. Not all would agree.

"Scoring is down, but does that make it a bad game necessarily?" continued Devellano. "A lot of people ask that question. I grew up in an era in the 50s and the Original Six when I used to see games that were 2-1, 3-2, 2-2, we had ties, 1-1, and I thought the games were terrific, so I don't know that we need to put as much emphasis on scoring a lot ofgoals to make the game interesting."

True, but the question then becomes are there enough scoring chances, are there enough interesting games and is the trap, which is very much in vogue and reinvented, suffocating the game? A cynic might also add, are they not fixing it because they don't have the solution?

"The biggest concern I have is that you can't every year change the style of play," added Devellano. "You can't keep every year, because what happens is you're always saying there's something wrong with your game or your product and I don't think that's healthy."

Morrison argues that the NHL should take Buffalo Sabres president Larry Quinn's point of view, seriously considering bigger nets and smaller goaltending equipment so that those ideas can be implemented down the line. Your humble blogger believes that the NHL should work harder to break the trap instead of continuing to use goalies as the league's collective whipping boys.